A police officer said he thought he could smell cannabis coming from the car of sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos and his partner Team GB athlete Bianca Williams, a misconduct hearing has heard.
The top athletes believe they were racially profiled during a “disturbing” stop and search incident as they drove to their home in West London on July 4, 2020.
Five Metropolitan Police officers have denied accusations of gross misconduct.
PC Allan Casey told a colleague “there’s certainly a whiff of something” during the encounter.
The couple, who were travelling with their then three-month-old boy, were handcuffed for 45 minutes, and searched for drugs and weapons, but nothing was found.
The disciplinary hearing was also shown footage of PC Casey “walking the route” the couple had driven to check nothing had been discarded from the car, but again, nothing was found.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog, which the misconduct case has been brought on behalf of, alleges some of the officers “lied” in saying there was a smell of cannabis when they stopped the car, the hearing was previously told.
PC Casey also told the hearing he didn’t think any driving offences could be proved against Mr Dos Santos.
Image: Ricardo Santos outside court
Mr Dos Santos has previously told the hearing he feared for his family’s safety during the encounter.
Dashcam footage showed officers pulling Mr Dos Santos from the driver’s seat and taking him to the roadside where he was handcuffed.
A tearful Ms Williams can then be heard telling police: “My son is in the car – I need to look after him.”
Moments later she too is handcuffed, as one of the officers suggested the couple had “antagonised” the police and “may have something to hide”.
At one point in the footage, the infant can be heard crying as an officer leaned into the back of the car to “check around the baby seat” before Ms Williams is allowed to collect her son.
Image: Police bodycam footage of the incident
29-year-old Ms Williams is a gold medallist in the 4x100m relays at the 2018 European Championships and Commonwealth Games.
28-year-old Mr Dos Santos competed in the 400m sprint at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee
Watch live Monday to Thursday at 8.00pm on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube.
Tap here for more
Acting Sgt Rachel Simpson and PCs Allan Casey, Jonathan Clapham, Michael Bond and Sam Franks all face allegations that they breached police standards regarding equality and diversity during the stop and search.
Acting Sgt Simpson and PCs Clapham, Bond and Franks are accused of breaching standards over the use of force and respect.
PCs Casey, Clapham, Bond and Franks also face allegations over the accuracy of their account of the stop.
Read more: Sprinter ‘feared’ for family during police stop and search Bianca Williams tears up as she recounts police stop and search
They have said they believed the car was being driven suspiciously and have denied any wrongdoing.
The five police officers involved could be sacked if gross misconduct is established.
A murder investigation has been launched after a second man died following a triple stabbing in Halifax.
West Yorkshire Police were called to Commercial Street at 3.48am on Sunday to reports that three men had been assaulted.
All of them were taken to hospital with stab wounds.
A 21-year-old man died in hospital a short time later, and police revealed on Monday that a 19-year-old also died late on Sunday evening.
A third man, aged 18, has received treatment for a non life-threatening injury.
Three men, two aged 18 and one aged 19, have been arrested and remain in police custody.
“This is an extremely serious incident which has resulted in the death of two young men and a further man injured,” said Detective Chief Inspector Matt Holdsworth.
Mr Holdsworth added: “We have specialist officers supporting both of their families and are determined to get answers for them and ensure that the person or people responsible are made to face justice for their actions.”
Police said a significant police presence was still in place at the scene on Monday morning.
They are appealing for anyone with phone video or dashcam footage to get in touch.
David Beckham was left “clinically depressed” after his red card in the 1998 World Cup, his wife Victoria has said.
Her comments are part of a new Netflix documentary about the footballer, which delves into his career with interviews from friends and family – as well as Posh and Becks themselves.
Beckham was sent off during the match with Argentina in 1998, after kicking Diego Simeone – a game that England went on to lose in a penalty shoot-out.
In the second episode of the documentary, Victoria, 49, and David, 48, talk about the abuse they had levelled at them in the late 1990s as a result of the sending off.
After the game, an effigy of Beckham hung in a pub, and during the following season, Manchester United’s team bus was pelted with rocks and pint glasses at an away game at West Ham.
Victoria said: “He was absolutely broken. He was in pieces.
“He was really depressed, absolutely clinically depressed.
“It pained me so much, I still want to kill these people.”
Beckham added: “I wish there was a pill you could take which could erase certain memories.
“I made a stupid mistake. It changed my life. (The questions when he came back) ‘how do you feel about letting your country down?’ and ‘you are a disgrace’.
“We were in America, just about to have our first baby, and I thought ‘we will be fine, in a day or two people will have forgotten’.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:17
May: King receives honey from David Beckham
Read more: David Beckham shares throwback picture with Victoria – celebrating 24 years of marriage David Beckham breaks silence on Joe Lycett’s money-shredding stunt Romeo Beckham ‘proud and happy’ to join Brentford FC on loan from Inter Miami
“I don’t think I have ever talked about it, just because I can’t. I find it hard to talk through what I went through because it was so extreme.
“Wherever I went, I got abused every single day.
“To walk down the street and to see people look at you in a certain way, spit at you, abuse you, come up to your face and say some of the things they said, that is difficult.
“I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t sleeping. I was a mess. I didn’t know what to do.
“The boss (Alex Ferguson) called me. He said ‘David, how are you doing?’ I think I got quite emotional. He said ‘how are you doing, son?’. I said ‘not great boss’. He said ‘OK, don’t worry about it, son’.
“That was the only thing I could control, once I was on the pitch, then I felt safe.”
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
Enable Cookies
Allow Cookies Once
Click to subscribe to Backstage wherever you get your podcasts.
Beckham added: “It brought a lot of attention that I would never wish on anyone, let alone my parents, and I can’t forgive myself for that. That is the tough part of what happened, because I was the one that made the mistake.
“When I have gone through difficult moments, I was able to block it out, but inside it killed me.
“Any time I was kicked during that season, it was like the (opposition team) had got two goals.
“As horrible as it was to look up to Victoria in the stand (getting that abuse), it was the one thing which spurred me on.”
A 31-year-old man has been charged with a public order offence after an image of a six-year-old Sunderland fan who died of cancer was displayed at a football match.
Dale Houghton, from Rotherham, will appear before Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning in connection to the incident, which took place at a match between Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland on Friday.
Police said they have also applied for a football banning order.
A 27-year-old man, also arrested on Saturday, has been released on police bail while further enquiries are conducted.
Houghton was remanded in custody.
Following the incident, more than £11,000 has been raised for The Bradley Lowery Foundation, a charity set up after his death in 2017.
The Sheffield Wednesday Football Club Women’s Supporters’ Group set up a GoFundMe page on Saturday, which has now smashed its initial £5,000 target.
The funds will go towards a holiday home that the foundation is building in Scarborough, to help bereaved families and children going through treatment.
In a statement, the foundation said it was “overwhelmed” by the support and wanted to thank everyone who has contacted the charity.
Read more from Sky News: M53 school bus crash survivor describes ‘shock’ and flashbacks Turkey carries out airstrikes in Northern Iraq after suicide attack in Ankara
Sheffield Wednesday also released a statement shortly after the incident apologising to Bradley’s friends and family.
The young football fan was diagnosed with rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma when he was just 18-months-old. He died in 2017.
On Sunday, Lynn Murphy, co-founder of the foundation, said Bradley brought rival teams within the game together.
“He went through some gruelling treatments, but he always did it with a smile on his face, and that smile is the thing that everyone remembers him for,” she told Sky News.
He was a mascot for both Sunderland and England and also struck up a close bond with striker Jermain Defoe, who called him his “best mate”.
A teenager who was on the coach which overturned in a fatal crash on the M53 in Cheshire says he is “happy to be alive”.
Speaking to Sky News anonymously, he recalled how what started as a normal school day on Friday turned into a tragedy.
“We were all just chatting on our phones,” he said. “Then all of sudden, nothing seemed real. I stood up because I felt something really weird, then all of sudden getting thrown to the side. The bus had tipped.”
Jessica Baker, a 15-year-old pupil at West Kirby Grammar School and bus driver, Stephen Shrimpton, died after the vehicle overturned on the motorway on Friday morning.
Mr Shrimpton, 40, was “suffering medical issues” while at the wheel, his sister-in-law Emily wrote on a crowdfunding page.
Image: Jessica Baker and Stephen Shrimpton died in the crash
Police said 58 people were involved in the crash. Four children were taken to hospital, one of whom, a 14-year-old boy, is said to have sustained life-changing injuries.
Pupils from West Kirby Grammar School and Calday Grange Grammar School were onboard.
‘People lying down everywhere’
After the bus hit a central reservation, the teenager told Sky News he eventually managed to climb through the smashed front window, but says what he saw was distressing.
“I looked around and there’s just people lying down everywhere. Bags are everywhere,” the pupil said.
Image: Flowers left at West Kirby all-girls grammar school.
“There’s glass everywhere. And it’s just like blood everywhere. I’ve seen both my mates on the floor, but I thought they were dead.
“I looked around again and saw a girl stood next to me. I was in shock, I put my hand on my face. I looked back at my hand and it was covered in blood, I remember saying, this can’t be my blood.”
Read more from Sky News: At least 13 people killed in nightclub fire in Spain Caesarean sections delayed due to NHS strike
Some of the students were eventually taken to nearby hospitals, while others were taken to an emergency services training centre in Wallasey, with 13 treated for minor injuries.
The pupil Sky News spoke to says he was certain no other students had died, so it came as a shock when he heard that Jessica had lost her life.
‘Just a horrible thing to think about’
The pair knew each other, and he described her as friendly.
“Obviously it could have been me in that position” he said. “She’s basically my age really, it’s just a horrible thing to think about.”
The teenager has been to A&E for his physical injuries but says the mental impact of what happened is causing flashbacks, including when in the car, and when there are sudden noises.
His overall feeling though, is that he is incredibly lucky.
“A couple of hours after it had happened, when I was sat upstairs. I’d realised it was crazy, I still don’t know how, like, I got up so quick and things like that and I don’t know how I wasn’t screaming, crying,” he added.
“I think I was subconsciously happy to be alive. Happy to be where I am now.”
Suella Braverman’s claim that “multiculturalism has failed” may have been made “to get attention”, according to her predecessor.
The current home secretary has faced a raft of criticism since making the comment earlier this week as part of a wider speech demanding an overhaul of the international asylum system.
But Priti Patel said the UK should be “proud” of the “dynamic communities” in the UK, and making such interventions were “not a substitute for delivery” on government policies.
Image: Priti Patel (left) took aim at Suella Braverman ahead of the Tory party conference
Politics live: Gove calls for tax cuts ahead of next election
Speaking to Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, the former cabinet minister said: “[Ms Braverman’s speech] was very much about making interventions… [but] that is not a substitute for delivery around changes to policy in government.
“Now, I don’t know what the intention was around that, whether it be to get attention [or] have the dividing line… as we go into a run up to a the general election.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:04
Braverman challenged over migration
Read more: What are the different factions in the Conservative Party? Tory calls for PM to slash ‘unsustainable’ tax burden
“I can understand that, I can absolutely understand that, but you and I are sitting here today, we are the actual products of integration, multiculturalism, dynamic communities, people that love our country, want to contribute to our country, along with a hell of a lot of other people that have done exactly the same, and I think that is something we should be proud of in our country.”
Asked if the speech was an attempt to distract the public from failures to tackle immigration issues in government, Ms Patel said ministers had been “clear” on their plans.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
Enable Cookies
Allow Cookies Once
Click to subscribe to Politics at Jack and Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts
But, she added: “This side of the general election, if I may politely suggest, it is about delivery and the government will be judged on delivery.
“If you make the pledges, statements and promises, you have to deliver. Pledges are no substitute for action and I think the public are sick of hearing about some of these issues and the failure to deliver, and I think it is right everyone puts a shoulder to the wheel, cracks on and delivers.”
Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips
Watch live each week on Sunday at 8:30am on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube.
Tap here for more
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:53
‘Being gay isn’t enough to claim asylum’
Ms Braverman has continued to defend her speech amid the fallout, with the likes of Elton John criticising her over her claims “simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin” was not “sufficient to qualify for protection”.
In an interview with the Mail On Sunday, she accused her critics of being “out-of-touch pampered elites” who were “virtue-signalling”.
But Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, told reporters the home secretary was “more interested in going after Elton John than going after criminals”.
More than 50 “overlooked” British towns are going to receive £20m each over the next decade to revive their high streets and tackle anti-social behaviour.
Factors including skills, pay, health and deprivation were examined to ensure the funding – announced as the Conservative Party conference gets under way – goes to the places that need it most.
A total of 55 towns will receive a share of the funding – with 44 in England, seven in Scotland, and four in Wales.
The governing body of English football’s referees has apologised to Liverpool after officials wrongly ruled out a goal in their 2-1 defeat to Tottenham on Saturday.
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) admitted a “significant human error” was made when a goal by Liverpool’s Luis Diaz was disallowed because of offside in the Premier League game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
At the time the score was 0-0, Tottenham went on to win 2-1 thanks to a Liverpool own goal in the dying seconds.
Match referee Simon Hooper, who sent off two Liverpool players, also ruled out Diaz’s 34th-minute effort.
The assistant’s offside flag was raised and a quick VAR check by Darren England at Stockley Park showed the Liverpool attacker was offside.
But still images of the incident appeared to show Tottenham defender Cristian Romero playing Diaz onside and Spurs took the lead two minutes later.
The referees’ body said in a statement: “PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool.
Read more: Club condemns ‘deplorable behaviour’ as fans appear to mock child who died from cancer
“The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials.
“This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.
“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error”, and “will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”
Cody Gakpo equalised before half-time, but Joel Matip’s last-gasp own-goal inflicted a first Premier League defeat of the season on Jurgen Klopp’s team.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, criticised the “unfair” and “crazy” decisions made by the officials.
He said: “That is not offside when you see it,” and dismissed the PGMOL apology, saying: “Who does that help? We won’t get points for it. We all thought that when VAR came in it would make things easier.
“The decision was made really quick for that decision. It changed the momentum of the game.”
Grassroots Conservative supporters are saying they want to oust Rishi Sunak and “go to war” with the liberal wing of the party in leaked WhatsApp messages obtained by Sky News.
We have obtained the discussions amongst members of the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), founded in December 2022 by donor and Johnson-backer Lord Peter Cruddas after the ousting of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
The group has had high profile support from senior figures on the right of the Conservative Party. Its conference in May featured speeches from Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries.
The leaked WhatsApps show the vitriol among some of its members aimed at Mr Sunak, little expectation of victory in the general election and a desire to take back control of the Tory party for the right, post-election.
A Tory source said that it was wrong to characterise Mr Sunak as being on the liberal wing of the party, saying he is “significantly more Conservative than Boris Johnson”.
Some of the screenshots suggest a handful of members believe in conspiracies, referring to “globalists” and a WEF government – a reference to the World Economic Forum held in Davos – which some conspiracy theorists believe to be home of a secretive world government which benefits elites.
Sky News has not named any of the activists involved, and not published the screenshots, since the participants in these conversations are not nationally significantly figures.
Several of the messages show the anger felt towards other wings of the Conservative party.
One activist said: “It’s time to go to war … unfortunately it’s with the liberals in our party. Needs to be done we need the party back.”
They go on: “Listening to my local party’s WhatsApp broadcast it’s like the last days of Rome… carrying on with the same old policies that have lost year after year. Ignoring actual conservatives and a conservative message… preferring to appear liberal to appease the middle class liberal climate guilt voters…. Personally I can’t see past the cowardice…. I’m pretty sure that’s all the public see too.”
Image: Some people want to see a return of Boris Johnson
Read more: What are the different factions in the Conservative Party? Ten conference moments that made headlines
The WhatsApp messages, almost all this year and some from the last few weeks, show:
• Members of the group mocking Mr Sunak, one saying he has the charisma of a “doorknob”. Another says he is “uninspiring” and saying the “govt can’t get anything right”, and characterise it as a party of “globalists”.
• Members of the CDO believe that Sunak, who voted for Brexit, is governing like a “remainer”. “CDO needs to rethink Rishi and pals, remainers have a firm hold on the party”, says an activist. Another says: “It’s no longer a conservative government I would vote for.”
• Some calling on them to remove Mr Sunak before the election, others hoping for a return of Boris Johnson. Others think an election will help Conservatives “find out who their voters are and rebuild from there”.
• Many rail about the way he was chosen to be leader, saying he “trampled democracy underfoot”. He became prime minister unopposed after Tory MPs ousted Ms Truss. Another said: “He staged a coup”.
• Many have given up winning the next election, with one saying “we’re gunna (sic) be out of power for a lot longer than 4 years and giving (sic) the cultural shift we may never get back in”.
• Others tout alternative leaders. An activist asks: “Is Tom Harwood a Conservative. If he is, he would make an ideal prime minister”. Mr Harwood is a political journalist at GB News.
• The group also criticises Mr Sunak’s cabinet. During the reshuffle earlier this month, one queried Grant Shapps’ appointment to the defence brief. “I just don’t find Shapps credible. Certainly not to take over the mantle from Wallace who was beyond excellent.” Another calls him a “crony appointment; Jack of all trades, master of none.”
Some CDO WhatsApp members see a conspiracy behind the poor performance from the Tories.
One says: “No party can be this incompetent on purpose. It’s got to be by design. And the only conclusion I can come to of why they would do this, is that they are all bought and paid for, same for Labour and the other cretins in parliament.
“Someone is pulling the strings to turn our country into a third world s**thole”.
Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips
Watch live each week on Sunday at 8:30am on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube.
Tap here for more
However, other members rejected the conspiracy theories.
One member of the Yorkshire CDO group said: “Infighting is what they’re best at. Who can stop that? Factions have formed and need breaking up. Who can do that? We can help if we’re not amongst them.
“They all need to see sense – immediately. But we need to know who’s in which faction in order to set targets to break them up.”
The majority of the group appears to have clear boundaries. When one commenter talks about Londistan and makes a link to Sadiq Khan, others jump in to condemn them, saying the CDO does not tolerate racism and that “true Conservatives are inclusive”.
Claire Bullivant, co-founder and chief executive of the CDO, said: “The CDO is a place for everyone who cares about democracy, and we certainly aren’t made up of just Conservative Party members.
“In fact, we have a lot of members who belong to Reform and other parties who all hold different views on various politicians. Some love Rishi, some don’t. Some want Boris back, some don’t.
“It’s normal… it’s by the by. What we care about is democracy and bringing a voice back to the people.
She added: “I personally follow the Ronald Reagan principle as I am a Conservative and I don’t really like bashing fellow Tories.
“But you’re showing me WhatsApp messages that could have been written by anyone who has joined some of our WhatsApp groups.”
She went on to welcome the publication of the leaks by Sky News.
“Of course the media will try and make a story about it. Go for it. Thank you for the publicity,” she said.
“It’s great that more people will hear about us. More and more people are joining CDO everyday.
“Like us they want democracy, and they want a centre right party that believes in free people, free markets, free speech, small governments and low taxes.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
Enable Cookies
Allow Cookies Once
Click to subscribe to Politics at Jack and Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts
“The fact is no-one wants Starmer, no-one wants 20mph limits, no-one wants unions running the show, no-one wants wokery, no-one wants ULEZ expansions and big government breathing down your neck every second. The average man on the street does not want Labour.
“I’m proud of what the CDO has achieved in such a short time and this is just the start. We have a great relationship with CCHQ and are excited to work with the Conservative Party moving forward.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has vowed to tackle the “vicious circle of ever-rising taxes” by revamping public services and the welfare system.
The cabinet minister argued the state needed to become “more productive”, not bigger, as he pointed to the use of artificial intelligence to realise frontline efficiencies and reduce the burden on the public purse.
He also said the government was looking at welfare changes, with 100,000 people a year moving off work on to benefits “without any obligation” to look for a job.
Mr Hunt made his comments as the Conservative Party annual conference gets under way in Manchester this weekend, with some senior party figures demanding tax cuts.
It follows a report published this week that said the Tories will have overseen, between the 2019 election and the next general election, the biggest set of tax rises since at least the Second World War.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thinktank said taxes will have increased to around 37% of national income, equivalent to around £3,500 more per household.
But despite the growing pressure, Mr Hunt told The Times newspaper: “We’re not in a position to talk about tax cuts at all.”
He added: “We need a more productive state, not a bigger state.”
“We need a state that doesn’t just deliver the services it currently delivers, but actually improves the services it delivers and recognises that there’s going to be more calls on those services with an ageing population,” he said.
“But we need to find a formula that doesn’t mean that we’re on a vicious circle of ever-rising taxes.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:50
Truss ‘tried to fatten and slaughter the pig’
Read more: PM vows to ‘slam brakes on the war on motorists’ Cleverly praises Trump’s ‘surprisingly effective’ style Beth Rigby – Can Team Rishi turn things around?
More than 30 Tory MPs, including Liz Truss, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s short-lived predecessor, and former home secretary Dame Priti Patel, have vowed not to back further tax hikes.
Ms Truss, whose mini-budget 12 months ago triggered market turmoil in response to unfunded tax cuts and ultimately forced her from office, tweeted on Friday: “We should always seek to reduce the tax burden, especially when there’s so much pressure on family budgets.”
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
Enable Cookies
Allow Cookies Once
Click to subscribe to Politics at Jack and Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts
In his Times interview, Mr Hunt also called for a more upbeat tone about the economy and said people needed to “shrug off a bit of the pessimism”.
Mr Hunt, who took over from Ms Truss’s sacked chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, said: “When I started the job there was a lot of doom and gloom about Britain, our prospects.
“What I have realised now nearly a year on is that there is just far too much declinism.
“If you look at the fundamentals of the British economy we have had our setbacks like everyone else, we are the fastest-growing large European country, not just since the pandemic but since Brexit, since 2010.
“That’s a period when we’ve had a once-in-a-century pandemic, a global financial crisis that we were particularly exposed to, and a 1970s-style energy shock. Despite all of that the British economy has been very resilient.”
His remarks came after it was revealed the UK economy grew faster than had first been thought between January and March this year.
Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips
Watch live each week Sunday at 8:30am on Sky channel 501, Freeview 233, Virgin 602, the Sky News website and app or YouTube
Tap here for more
Data published by the Office for National Statistics shows UK economic growth was 0.3% from January to March, better than the 0.1% first announced.
The revision put the country’s economy ahead of both Germany and France in terms of post-pandemic performance but behind allies such as the United States, Canada, Japan and Italy.
